


Troublemaker and Sunshine Solve a Murder

by acidbathh



Series: Troublemaker and Sunshine Solve a Murder [1]
Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Murder Mystery, Non-Explicit Sexual Content, Short Story, but theyre really more queerplatonic (QP), kinda tom/laurel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-11-28 08:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18205886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidbathh/pseuds/acidbathh
Summary: It's nearly Halloween, and Tom's not too incredibly excited for his birthday on October 31st, especially since he's become one of the prime suspects in a murder investigation.You see, Tom and his best friend, Laurel are in a band called 'Troublemaker and Sunshine'. Troublemaker and Sunshine is a popular underground band that often performs in a local club known as 'Origin'. However, they have an incredibly worthy rival, another duo by the name of 'Missing Motive', made up of Diwi "DJ" James and Hellucard "Aces" Rickets. Well, when one half of Missing Motive, Hellucard, shows up dead in the club's kitchen freezer, Tom and Laurel become the prime suspects in the investigation, and it gets even worse for them when they can't prove their alibi. With the police quickly building a case against them, they have to work against the clock on their own investigation to prove their innocence, or face the consequences.How will they prove that they're innocent before time runs out?





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A body is discovered in a local, underground club known as Origin, and two young teens are likely traumatised for life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: IDK man, two underage teens go into a club and find a body.

**Prologue**

Two kids flash the body guard at the club with their convincing, yet fake, IDs, and are let in. One of them has a beard faker than the pair of silicone breasts that the two boys passed while walking past the short line into the club. Neither of them could really help but gawk at all the women who were decidedly much older than them as they strolled through the club. The body guard, a tall, meaty man, looked like he couldn't care less whether these kids were underaged or not. He probably didn't get paid enough to care all that much, and he just let them in. 

"That dude was totally baked," Said the tall, thin one, Jeremy. The shorter one with the fake beard, named Alex, laughed. "Yeah, that's why he probably let us in.

The music in the club was loud, beating in their heads as they wandered, looking for something to do. "I thought it would be more exciting to get in here," Said Jeremy. "I mean, we can get drunk, maybe get laid?" Said the shorter, wider one, Alex. Jeremy frowned. "Really?" He said, gesturing to themselves. "Are you really sure that either of us could get laid in here?" Alex scoffed. "Oh, of course we can." He replied, putting his hands on his hips defiantly. "Maybe if we get some chick drunk enough-" Jeremy looked appalled. "Dude, no, that's rape." Alex frowned. "Yeah, no, you're right." He paused. "Maybe if we're both drunk enough-" Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Do you know how bad it is for you to get drunk before age twenty-five?" He said. "Twenty-five is the age when your frontal lobe becomes fully developed, and if you-" Alex scoffed again, shoving Jeremy. "Oh, get the stick out of your ass, Jer, I'm sure that getting drunk maybe  _once_ wouldn't be such a bad thing for your frontal lobe. Especially if it loosens you up a bit." He walked past Jeremy, muttering, "No wonder you don't have a girlfriend, you dweeb." Jeremy crossed his arms and followed. 

"Hey, look, Al," Jeremy pointed. "There's a snack machine." Alex raised a brow. "Why is there a snack machine in the club?" He asked. "Don't they have food here?" Jeremy shrugged. "I mean, this is an underground club, maybe they want to make a little extra dough." Alex shrugged, and they both made their way over to the machine. 

"Oh, dude," Alex said. "I think some guy is passed out over there." Alex pointed to the pair of legs sticking out from between the vending machine and the wall. The two approached the vending machine nervously. "I'm gonna poke him." Alex said. "I don't think we should bother him, dude." Jeremy said nervously. Alex rolled his eyes. "Oh, why don't you grow a pair, you dweeb." Said Alex, as he went over to check the allegedly drunk man out. 

Alex went up to the guy, while Jeremy stayed somewhat behind, but still in view of what was going on. As soon as Alex approached the body, though, he noticed something off. "Hey," Said Alex. "Is a passed out, drunk guy supposed to have open eyes?" Jeremy made a face. "I don't think so, man." He said. "Let's just get out of here, I'm sure he's fine." Jeremy's tone wavered over the loud thumping of the music in the club. Alex poked the guy, and he didn't move. "Oh, weird," Alex said. "He's all cold and stuff, it's gross." Jeremy seemed to get more nervous by the second. "Dude," Jeremy said, in a cold, and serious tone. "I think that guy is dead." Alex whipped around. "What!?" He yelled. "No way, we found a dead body!?" Jeremy looked sick, and then Alex did, too. "Oh my God, we found a dead body." 

Alex and Jeremy looked to each other, then screamed. 

 

 


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom is called in to examine a body late at night, but he seems to recognise the victim.

It's late at night on a Friday, and Tom was in bed. Next to him was his best friend, Laurel Sunshine. Tom groaned and turned in his bed to said friend, her back turned to him. He wrapped an arm around her torso, feeling her fleshy, naked stomach. She laughed and turned around in Tom's grip, her chest pressed against his. "Morning, Sunshine." Tom said, and Laurel scoffed. "Ah, like that one never gets old." She leaned forwards to press a kiss on his nose. She lifted one of her legs to rest on Tom's hip as she went in for a proper kiss on his mouth. Tom hummed at this, and wrapped one of his arms around her waist, smiling tiredly. He put his face in Laurel's neck, taking in a deep breath and grinding gently against her. "Back for more? Already?" Laurel said, clearly amused. Tom laughed a little, but didn't say anything. 

The two fooled around in bed together, but in the middle of it, Tom's phone started ringing. Laurel stopped her movements and groaned. "Ugh, Mark?" She said. Tom moved his arm to grab his phone, but it was kind of awkward while he was on his back. He picked it up and answered it. Panting, he said, "What do you want?" Laurel started moving again, and his breath hitched. He had to pull away from the phone to let out a couple of strangled noises. "Tom, we need you to come into work." Mark didn't seem to hear this, not yet at least. Tom sighed heavily. "I'm kind of in the middle of something right now." He said, as Laurel put her face in Tom's neck and bit down, and Tom let out a quick yelp. "Well- wait." Mark said. "Are you having sex right now?" Mark asked. Tom continued to be tortured by Laurel, who was absolutely doing this on purpose. "Daddy..." She said, laughing a little. "Daddy?" Mark said. "Oh bugger off, don't call me that." Tom pushed Laurel up off his chest as she snorted. Mark laughed on the other end. "Wow, okay," He said. Well, I'll leave you to it, and, uh, don't forget about work, because there's a body and people are suspecting foul play." Mark hung up. 

"I fucking hate you." Tom said as Laurel laughed, continuing to ride him. 

After all was said and done, Tom forced himself to get dressed and leave his room.

He sighed as he walked past his friends, Edd and Tord, sitting on the couch and rewatching one of their favourite movies for the umpteenth time. Zombie Pirates from Hell was a classic series, but he didn't have time to watch it. He was grabbing his keys off the hook by the door, still pulling on his jacket, when Edd turned and asked him what he was doing. "I just got a call, there's a body and they need it examined ASAP. They're suspecting foul play." Edd made a face. "It's all fun and games 'till someone loses a life, huh?" Tom shrugged. "Welcome to Halloween." Being the head coroner had its perks, sure, like higher pay, but the hours fucking sucked. Edd hummed. "Don't stay out too late, dear." Edd said in a mocking wife-y voice, and Tom flipped him off as he walked out the door, not bothering to give a verbal response. 

Tom's drive to the morgue was long and tired, like most of his late nights were. He hated late night calls like these, but they had to be done, or he'd probably get fired, and he wouldn't get paid, and he wouldn't get to help solve cool murders and stuff. The drive was uneventful, but when he got to the morgue, it was a bit more hectic. There were a few officers there, and Tom had to sign off on the body, which was usual for murder victims, or victims suspected of foul play. Tom wasn't so sure, because apparently the guy was found in a club, right? He could have easily died of alcohol poisoning, it happens all the time. But still, Tom was here and he had to do the tox screen and all that shit, so he signed the papers letting people know he got the body, gloved his hands and grabbed a saw to start opening the body. 

That was when he walked over to the table and unzipped the body bag, setting down the bone saw. His jaw dropped. One of the officers, Eduardo, seemed to notice this. "Do you know him?" He asked. Tom shook his head. "Yeah, this- this is Ace Rickets." He said, pursing his lips. "That's pretty un-fuckin'-fortunate, isn't it?" Tom said to himself. He knew that he'd probably have to examine the body of at least one person he knew in his entire career as a coroner, but he didn't expect it to be Ace. "I'll look for missing persons reports on an Ace Rickets-" Tom interrupted him. "That's not his real name." He said. "H-his real name is Hellucard Rickets. He's, uh, well, kind of a friend of mine. Sort of." Tom said. Eduardo looked at him. "Alright, I'll look for anything on a Hellucard Rickets." He said. "Do you know any friends or family of his?" "Yeah, you should talk to his best friend, Diwi James, and his sister, Katya Rickets. Oh, and his girlfriend, but I don't know her name." Eduardo wrote all of this down on his notepad, and thanked Tom, then left with everyone else. 

And Tom was alone with the body of someone he knew. He really didn't like that, honestly. He never thought it would be Hellucard. He was such a nice person. A good rival, and friend. He really hoped that Hellucard's death wasn't intentional. He began to pull Hellucard's body out of the body bag and removed his clothing. He could already tell that time of death wasn't more than a day or two before his body was found, he wasn't even decomposing yet. Tom made sure to put that in his notes, then he grabbed his phone, put in his earbuds and put on some music before doing anything involving the previously discarded bone saw. He had to keep telling himself that this was not Hellucard, or anyone he knew, just a blank victim, a set of remains that would bring him to the person that killed his friend. 

After having examined the body for a few hours and putting absolutely everything about the body into his thorough notes, he still couldn't find cause of death. The toxicology report wouldn't be in for a few days, so he wouldn't be able to see if there was any alcohol in the victim's system, or if that was the cause of death just yet, and he feared he might not have time on his side if the police already suspected foul play. He looked at Ace's skull for a while, wondering what could have killed him. 

He found a small lesion on the back of his head, but it was a mere bruise of no other cause than hitting his head on a hard surface, not to mention small. The thing would have barely been sore, and it didn't appear to damage the skull at all. Nothing seemed right about whatever was going on here. 

After another hour, Tom eventually gave up on trying to find cause of death at the moment. He found the victim's identity, and gave the police some leads about who to go and question, and that should be good enough to hold them over for a while. Tom then hung his coat on the rack and grabbed a copy of his notes from the autopsy, and then made his way out to his car so he could drive home for the night. For the second time. 

By the time he got back, it was about four in the morning. Everyone else was already asleep, and has been for a while. Tom decided to go over his notes for a while longer before going to bed. Again. When he got in, Laurel was still there, but dead asleep. He wrapped an arm around her as he got comfortable under the covers, and went to sleep. 

The next morning, late that morning, Tom woke up desperately needing coffee. He wanted the alarm on his phone to die. Laurel was gone already, likely having gone to work, so he got up and got dressed-ish - that is to say he put on boxers and a shirt. He went downstairs to smell breakfast, which was just bacon for Edd, and then it would be bacon for Tord, and then it would be a free for all for Tom and Matt. Tom got downstairs looking, (and feeling), like hell, and it showed on his friend's faces. "Damn," Edd said. "Late night?" He asked. Tom shrugged and made a disgruntled noise that sounded like it was supposed to be words, but you wouldn't be able to tell what those words were to save your life. "Yeah, you look a bit haggard." Matt said. Tom rolled what could barely constitute as eyes. "Oh, bugger off." He said, moving through the kitchen groggily. 

Tom slowly moved to the coffee maker on the kitchen counter, and poured himself a cup. He added a bit of sugar and milk and stirred, taking a sip. "You're never gonna believe who they brought in last night." He said. Edd and Matt made faces. "Are we sure we wanna know?" Matt asked. Tom rolled his eyes. "No, it was, like, Aces- Hellucard." Matt looked a little shocked. "Rickets?" He asked. Tom nodded. "Yeah." "How did he die?" Edd asked. Tom shrugged. "I dunno. Not yet, at least." He said. "It's like he just... Died, or something." Edd frowned. "I don't like that." He said. Tom snorted. "Yeah, it's fuckin' weird. I have to go in later and do some more digging. Probably talk to the police about medical issues and stuff, since I'm at a fuckin' loss." He sat at the table, putting his head in his hand, still looking tired. 

Matt perked up. "What if he had a heart attack?" He sipped his coffee. Tom shrugged. "I don't think so, there wasn't any excess of adrenaline, his heart and body were relatively healthy for a guy his age. As far as I know, no medical history of weak hearts or heart issues like that of any kind." Matt was really into the crime-solving stuff, and while he sometimes acted like the murder-mystery version of r/iamverysmart, he did sometimes have some good ideas. "What about issues with his brain?" He asked. "Like his skull, and stuff." Edd made a face. "Why are we talking about the possible causes of death of our friend at the breakfast table?" Tom pondered Matt's suggestion, and ignored what Edd said. "No, no," Tom started, but trailed off. "What?" Matt said. "Matt's actually onto something. I didn't x-ray his head yet - I should've - but what Matt said could be something." Tom got up from the table, poured the rest of his coffee into the sink and rinsed it out while talking to himself. 

"If he had a stroke, or an aneurysm, it could have been triggered by being pushed into something." He went upstairs while continuing to mutter. He came back down, barely shoving himself into his jeans and nearly falling over. "Aren't you going to eat breakfast?" Edd asked. "No, I can't, I'm already too late. Hellucard had an aneurysm that was ruptured by being pushed into a wall, hence the bruise on the back of his head, and that's how he died!" Tom managed to get the last words out as he shoved his leg into his jeans and fell face-first on the floor. Tord burst out laughing while Tom immediately got up, entirely unfazed. He grabbed some of the toast that Matt had been making in the toaster, much to Matt's dismay, then he ran out the door, and like a Japanese schoolgirl in a slice-of-life anime, Tom was on his way, late for work. 

Tom rushed to work, clocking in late. Mark was already re-examining the victim from last night, Ace, and barely seemed to notice him. "You're in late. Again." He said, without even looking up. "You forgot to do x-rays last night." He added. Tom rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. But I managed to figure out a possible cause of death." Mark looked up at him. "Really? Because I haven't so far." Tom walked up next to Mark, barely getting his lab coat and gloves on before gently pushing Mark out of the way to show him. "You see this bruise on the back of his head?" Tom said. "Yes, what about it?" Mark replied. "Where are the head x-rays?" Tom asked, as he looked around. Mark grabbed them from a nearby table and showed them to Tom. "Here." He said. Tom held two up to the light, then put one down and picked up another one. He handed one of them to Mark, and said, "What do you see here?" He asked. Mark seemed confused. "I see an x-ray of the victim's skull." He said. Tom frowned. "Look closer, dude, the cause of death is right here." Mark held the x-ray up to the light a little more, and blinked. "He had a cerebral aneurysm." Mark said. Tom nodded. "See right there? That little tiny dot is what killed him." Mark blinked. "-And whatever he was pushed up against ruptured it, and killed him!" Tom nodded. "See? I'm kind of a genius." Tom said, grinning and taking a bow. "Hardly, I bet you had help with this one." He said. "Because not even I could figure out what killed the guy." Tom made a face. "Oh, like you're much better than me." He said. "Who's the head coroner, bitch?" Tom took his gloves off and started writing in his notes. "Yeah, but who scored higher on exams?" "Oh, bugger off, you paid someone to take them for you. All the popular kids did." Tom was clearly bitter about the exam scores. Mark snorted. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that." Mark continued to examine the body for anything else, taking note of the scratches on the victim's arms. 

"Hey, did you notice these scratches on the victim's arms?" Mark asked Tom. Tom shrugged. "Yeah, they're probably in my notes. They weren't cause of death, though, so I didn't see very much importance at the time." Tom put down his pen. "It could be evidence." Mark said, deciding to swab the wounds for DNA, or anything else useful. He walked away from the body and went into another part of the morgue, looking for a swabbing kit when two uniformed officers walked into the room. 

"Can I help you?" Tom asked. It was Paul and Patrick, good friends of Edds, and colleagues of Toms. "We know you knew the victim." Paul said. "I'd like to offer my condolences, but we need to ask you a few questions." Tom put down his pen and stood up straighter. "Sure, shoot." He said. "Where were you on the night of the victim's death?" Patrick asked. Tom was taken aback a little bit, blinking. "Oh, I was, uh," He seemed a little nervous. He had an alibi, but he didn't really like to talk about it too much. Patrick had a notepad and pen in hand, waiting. "I was with a friend." "What friend?" Paul asked. "Laurel, Laurel Sunshine." Both Paul and Patrick exchanged dubious looks. "Her name is Laurel Sunshine?" They asked. Tom rolled his eyes. "She changed it from Amy Blankenhooper a few years back." He said. Patrick wrote this down. Paul and Patrick cringed at Laurel's old name. Tom raised his brows. "Yeah." "So, where were you and... Sunshine?" Paul asked. Tom seemed to get a little flustered at this. "We weren't really- we were just, like, home." Patrick and Paul exchanged looks again. Tom hated it when they did that. "Doing what...?" Patrick asked. Tom seemed to get even more flustered at this, turning red. "Oh, y'know..." He said. "Stuff." Patrick raised his brows, seeming to understand what that meant. "Yes, but what stuff?" Paul asked, ever the thick-headed brute and not the brightest. Patrick nudged him with his elbow. "They were having sex." Patrick said bluntly. Tom stretched his lips into a thin line, his face bright red. Paul looked to Tom for confirmation of this, and Tom shrugged and gestured to Patrick. "Y-yeah, we were, uh, having sex." He said. Paul made a face, but seemed satisfied with that answer. 

Mark's voice could be heard from the other room when he said, "I can confirm this, when I called to tell him to come into work last night, he was definitely having sex." Tom sputtered a flustered laugh, turning even pinker. "You're just gonna do me like that, huh?" He said. Mark poked his head out of the room and gave an evil grin. Paul and Patrick seemed a little taken aback, but Patrick wrote this down nonetheless. 

"Where can we find Laurel? We may need to question her, too." Patrick seemed very nonchalant about the whole ordeal, while both Paul and Tom seemed a bit flustered and awkward at the last question. "You know where I live, right?" Paul nodded. "Yes." "Well, Laurel lives right next to us, in the grey house." Paul sighed. "It would be easier if you gave us an address." Paul said. Tom seemed flabbergasted. "Man, I don't know!" He said, throwing his arms up into the air. "I don't pay attention to addresses." Paul sighed. "Alright, grey house next to yours, then." He said.

"How did you know Hellucard Rickets?" Patrick asked. "Oh, well, he was a rival of mine, sort of. A friendly rival, really, we weren't really enemies. In fact, before he died, we were thinking of doing some sort of collaboration." Patrick raised a brow. "What were you two rivals in?" "Oh, right, uh, Laurel and I are in a band, kind of, Troublemaker and Sunshine, and Hellucard was in another band with his best friend, Diwi James, and they were called Missing Motive." Patrick wrote this all down. "Where did you guys often play?" Paul asked. "Oh, mainly in the club where Hell- the victim was found." Tom seemed to stumble over his words, not wanting to call "the victim" by his name. Patrick seemed to take note of this. "Origin, correct?" Patrick confirmed, and Tom nodded. "Yeah." "Where can we find this Diwi James?" Paul asked. "I don't really know him all that well, but I'm sure you can get his number off of Hellucard's phone out of evidence. Or, I may even have it, actually." Tom pulled his phone out of his pocket and searched through his contacts. "Yeah, here." He said, handing his phone to Patrick, who wrote down the number.

"Thank you, Tom." Patrick said as the two began to leave. "No problem." Tom replied, his voice a little strained. "We'll keep in touch." Paul said, as a final goodbye. 

Mark walked out of the room that he'd been hiding in since the interview started. "So..." He said. Tom pulled his hand down his face and sighed. "You and Laurel, huh?" Mark smirked. "Don't ask, I'm not telling you anything." Mark put his hands up in the air, as if to seem innocent, but he still had that stupid smirk on his face. "I'm not asking." He said, snorting. 

Paul and Patrick, as they left, seemed a bit suspicious of Tom. "Why was he so nervous to tell us that he was just with his girlfriend or something?" Paul asked. Patrick shrugged. "I mean, they were having sex, apparently, so maybe that's just a private thing for him?" Paul didn't seem convinced. "He's not usually private about that sort of thing, at least not from what I've seen at least." Patrick raised a brow. "What have you seen?" Paul shrugged. "I don't know, he's usually pretty carefree, answers questions about himself pretty honestly." Paul paused for a moment. "You know what? I'm not gonna buy into the whole Tom-and-Laurel thing." Patrick hummed. "Oh, it's a 'thing', huh?" He said. Paul furrowed his brows. "I'm almost certain that it's not." He said. Patrick put his note pad in his pocket and raised his hands up near his head as a way to feign innocence. "Alright," He said. "I believe you, for now." He said. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> be sure to leave a like and subscribe. i'll be sure to make note of any edits that i may do to it, with dates and brief details.

**Author's Note:**

> if you want more ironically godly content like this, then follow me on tunbler @clementine-woolysocks.tumblr.com


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